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Education

Education

Food Systems Education

ASU offers food-related courses in the School of Life Sciences, Department of English, Morrison School of Agribusiness, School of Sustainability, School of Nutrition and Health Promotion, Engineering, Geography and Urban Planning, School of Transborder Studies and History.

While each program provides complementary emphases in different aspects of food systems issues (i.e. economics of the food system, culture and social meaning associated with food, sustainability and food, agriculture and agribusiness, etc.), students who desire a systems-oriented and sustainability-focused course of study have difficulty identifying the suite of appropriate classes.

Currently we offer a cross-disciplinary Certificate in Food System Sustainability to undergraduate students from any major. This certificate will bring together courses on food from the social sciences, humanities, life sciences and applied sciences, providing the opportunity for students to study food from a sustainability perspective.

Sustainability Teachers’ Academy

In addition to university courses, ASU has programs that target K-12 sustainability education. The Sustainability Teachers’ Academy, based in the Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives, is a professional development program for K-12 teachers from across the nation that focuses on hands-on curriculum related to urban sustainability issues. Billions of youth eat hundreds of meals in K-12 schools and develop norms and habits that guide their food decisions for the rest of their lives.

The Teachers’ Academy focuses on food systems sustainability in programming, materials, field-trips, and resources. The curriculum is based on the dynamic nature of food systems, the food decisions people are faced with when they have limited time and resources, food labeling, and the story of people that work in each phase of the food system.

Dinner 2040

Dinner 2040 is an ongoing community engagement and education program that seeks to examine the cultural side of our food systems from a variety of humanistic disciplines and perspectives. The workshops and events under Dinner 2040 engage in activities that explore our food system through a set of five core values: historical, cultural, and place-based practices; sustaining environmental integrity; health and nutrition; food justice and social justice; and food sovereignty. Engagements range from community workshops to film screenings to public talks.